Forsaken Isle

Forsaken Isle, to me, is that practice game every developer should make before venturing into something grander. It is an attempt to hone one's skills. A castle game, I like to call it. A one dungeon short experience that attempts to give the player a taste of what the developer could do.

The game is more or less default RTP in every regard, perhaps some edits here and there. The maps themselves are not the most inspired nor are they particularly well crafted. However, I say the level design itself is mostly pleasant despite a hiccup or to. Such as having a mix of walking enemies and random encounters. Personally I didn't see the point to fight the walk around enemies when I could just fight enemies randomly as I walk. The other hiccup would be in the left wing in the dungeon, the first walking enemy would often block the path when one tried to quickly rush through and gain healing. Other than that, the small experience flowed well enough in my opinion.

The story of the game is subtle. The character is nearly non-existent, the plot drawn forward by charming descriptions before and after slaying certain monsters. The treasure chest messages are never generic. All in all, it was a neat way of presenting itself in my opinion. I think it would work much better for a game where one can craft their own characters, though I totally approve testing the waters in a smaller beast like this. A subtle story told within the dungeon rather than the character is totally my thing when done right. I say Forsaken Isle did it right for what the small experience was.

The battles are simple yet they are fast paced with a tinge of challenge. For such a small game, the simplicity was welcomed with warm sands. The issues I have with the battles mostly come from some addition of useless spells, the fragility of the mage, and the overall amount of them. Yet, those issues were quite small for me. I enjoyed them overall. The default skills I felt were the most useful and brought a strategy to the battles. I'd often stun the enemies with the fighter dude and use the healer to attack another and blast that same enemy with the mage. The game does not get much deeper than that. It's like a taste of something that could be more. Which is good for such a short “castle game”.

Overall, the game took me about 35 minutes, I got to the max level (5), and I died about two times. The developer has promise as the game was charming despite being all RTP and having almost no character dialogue at all. I imagine the developer could do great things with more creative maps, perhaps different and better tilesets to use in the future, and a more developed gameplay. This is something I personally feel, but original music will always inspire me so much more to play than the default RTP stuff. That is not a complaint though, as I understand not everyone has the means to obtain an original soundtrack. (Perhaps in the future look for free options?)

The game was overall an average RPG Maker experience, yet the short length and charm made it enjoyable. I look forward to seeing more from the developer in the future.